


It Lingers

by Redrikki



Series: Whumptober 2019 [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Delirium, Fever, Gen, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 06:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20887688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: The Mind Flayer is gone, but El can still feel it clawing underneath her skin.





	It Lingers

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Whumptober prompt "delirium" and hurt-comfort bingo prompt "infection."

The Mind Flayer is gone, but El can still feel it clawing into her with each step. It’s like phantom limb pain, except no. That was for things she’s lost, like Hopper and her powers. Things she’ll miss. This is just pain that’s lingered on after the source is gone. At least she hopes it is. Without her powers, there isn’t anything she could do if it isn’t. 

At the hospital, El clutches Mike’s hand as the nurse flushes her wound with saline. 

“Don’t want you getting an infection,” she says with an apologetic smile as she blots the run off with little cloth pads. They come away stained with red and black. 

Max had cleaned her wound out back at the store with water and rubbing alcohol, but clearly wasn’t enough. It’s filthy. Jonathon’s hand was in there. A monster was in there. El hisses as the nurse starts with the disinfectant. Hopefully it will be enough this time. El squeezes her eyes shut presses her forehead against Mike’s so they don’t have to watch the nurse put the stitches in. So much for bad ass and bitching. 

The sun is just starting to rise above the hills by the time they discharge her from the hospital. With Hopper gone and the cabin in shambles, Mrs. Byers insists on taking El home with them. She spends the day dozing in the couch with her leg up to reduce the swelling. It swells anyway. By the next morning her skin feels warm and tight.

People drift in and out of the house over the next few days. The Party, the police, government men. They come and go in waves, talking and asking questions El’s too tired to deal with. She floats above them, surfing. The waves are seven feet high and the Mind Flayer keeps digging in and pulling her down.

“The gate is closed?” Mrs. Byers asks the government man. “For good this time?”

“Yes. For good,” he says firmly but his split second of hesitation sends chills down El’s spine.

“You can tell, right? When it’s here?” 

They’re watching _Magnum, P.I._ She’s stretched out across the couch with Jonathan and Will sprawled across the floor. It’s her favorite show, but tonight it’s unbearable. Magnum always reminded her of Hopper. Before, that was a good thing. Now it’s phantom limb pain.

Will bites his lip. “I can, but—” His eyes dart to her leg and her breath catches. He stares at it for a long moment, then shakes his head. “I don’t sense anything.”

That doesn’t mean anything. He hadn’t sensed anything earlier either, when it dug its way into her the first time. He could only sense it when it was moving, not when it was quietly eating people from the inside out. 

“I can still feel it,” El whispers. It’s gotten worse lately, like her whole leg is on fire. 

“You—” Will’s breathing edges towards panic and Jonathan shoots her a nasty look. 

“The gate’s closed,” he insists, squeezing Will’s shoulder. “The Mind Flayer’s gone and he can’t come back. Her leg just hurts is all.”

Maybe he’s right. She hopes he’s right, but painful stirring in her leg says different.

A shockingly cold hand on her forehead sends El flailing up from a nightmare blend of Billy’s worst moments. Mrs. Byers leans over her, a frown wrinkling her forehead.

“Goodness, El, you’re burning up. Jonathan, help me run her a cold bath,” she calls over her shoulder.

“No!” El struggles to get away before they put her in the tub of ice with Heather. “It likes the cold!” Better to burn it, burn her, to ash than to give it what it wants. 

“Oh, sweetheart.” Mrs. Byers sounds sad, but she’s stopped trying to pull El off the couch. She reaches, instead, for the bandage around El’s leg. The air feels blessedly cool against her skin as it comes off.

Mrs. Byers gasps and El forces herself up to see what the problem is. There are lines. Red lines. Crawling up her leg like vines. Billy had lines like that. Black, as the Mind Flayer ate him alive. It’s still here! It’s still here and it’s inside of her.

“Get it out!” El streaks, clawing at her stitches,

“No!” Mrs. Byers grabs her hands. “It’s an infection. Jonathan call the hospital!”

An infection. El has to get it out. She strains with her powers, pulling and pulling, but grasping at nothing. She doesn’t understand. It has to be there. She can feel it. She falls back into the dark, wet place where her powers live and keeps falling until she wakes up in the hospital with a needle in her arm.


End file.
